


when the party’s over

by ultraviolentluv



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Drabble, Drug Addiction, Heavy Angst, idk i just felt like writing something sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 07:24:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19825318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultraviolentluv/pseuds/ultraviolentluv
Summary: everyone in high school knows him as the guy with a big house and parents who are rarely around. but what happens when he can’t leave that role behind?





	when the party’s over

**Author's Note:**

> whoaaaaaaa, here comes unnecessary edgy lowercase angst from yours truly!
> 
> intended to be in an AU where none of the ~stranger things~ ever happen, except maybe nancy breaking up with him at that halloween party because of barb’s death. mostly i just wanted to write out a portrait of a miserable party boy who can’t leave the party behind. idk.

steve harrington’s got it all. great hair, fancy car, a whole queue of girls who’d die for a date with him, and parents who give just the right amount of zero fucks. sure, he parties on school nights when he shouldn’t and keeps the drinks coming even when there’s no one around to impress. so what? he’s a cool guy type, and he’s got nothing to lose.

he’s at tommy h.’s house the first time he tries coke. it’s just a stupid party and everyone’s doing it. all the privileged kids with streets named after their fathers and trust funds to blow are addicted to this shit, and it hasn’t killed anyone yet. carol’s laughing her ass off when steve’s nose starts to bleed. and it’s all so funny, so inexplicably hilarious when his mom finds out and chews him out for spending her hair salon money on it instead of his own allowance. his dad is out, likely screwing another family’s babysitter. all signs point to the american dream and steve harrington’s just swimming in it.

he’s lucky he gets to graduate. it’s definitely more due to his father threatening to withdraw donations from the athletic department and not at all his gpa that gets him there, but he gets to leave with a pretty piece of paper and in the end, no one will give a shit what grades he graduated with when he takes over his father’s company. he shakes the superintendent’s hand with bourbon in his veins and it’s only 11 o’clock in the morning. his mother is just so proud.

then things get good for a while. he decides to stop showing up to scoops ahoy high every day and actually manages to form a functional relationship with his coworker robin. they become best friends once he finds out she’s gay and she helps him process his feelings on being bi. they bond over giving discounts to pretty girls and robin teases him for his stammering whenever a discernibly hot guy enters. losing her friendship hurts the worst of all of them. he takes one too many xans on a shift at the end of the summer and she calls him on his bullshit in front of everyone. he quits and blows all his money on the old shit again. his dad pays for some other woman to have an abortion. and just like that, steve comes crashing down.

the last time he sees nancy wheeler, he’s sitting in her driveway with a water bottle full of vodka in his car’s cupholder. she tells him to go home, take care of himself, get some help. nancy never liked the party life anyways, he knows. she wouldn’t get it if she tried. he tells her he’s fine and drives home by some miracle.

isolation’s a good look on him, he decides. he shuts himself away in his room most hours out of the day, typically trying to see how fast he can drink himself back to sleep. when his mom finally leaves, he takes a bottle of whatever out to the swimming pool with him and sees how long he can hold his breath. just to test it, he tells himself. he hasn’t seen the old high school crew in ages, it seems. he hears that tommy and carol moved away to indianapolis to start a family. he gives a toast to dysfunctional families while lying in the backyard, delirious. his father decides to go a different direction with the company.

he spends his days getting drunk and his nights getting drunker. he’s counted the tiles on his bathroom floor at least fifty times. he steals spoons from restaurants, never putting them to use, but just in case. nobody’s called him in months. so what? he’s got nothing to lose.


End file.
